Recently Reinstated Police Officer Brian Hunzeker Resigns After City Learns He Was Moonlighting

This morning, WW informed the City Attorney’s Office that Officer Brian Hunzeker of the Portland Police Bureau was moonlighting as a Clark County sheriff’s deputy.

Tonight the city told WW in an email that it had “just learned” of his second job in Washington and that Hunzeker had resigned, effective yesterday.

WW learned of Hunzeker’s moonlighting earlier this week. Hunzeker was earning a nearly six-figure salary in Clark County as a sheriff’s deputy since being hired last August. Hunzeker, the former president of the Portland police union, took that job after Mayor Ted Wheeler fired him last year for leaking a police report mistakenly identifying then-Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, a fierce critic of the bureau, in a hit and run.

This February, an arbitrator overturned Wheeler’s decision and ordered Hunzeker reinstated with back pay. Hunzeker returned to the Police Bureau and has since been earning a $107,744 salary from the city of Portland, in addition to his paycheck from Clark County.

It is not clear whether the Clark County Sheriff’s Office was aware that Hunzeker had regained employment in Portland. A spokesperson for the office told WW that he was working “full time” and had four weekly shifts. Hunzeker was paid $45 per hour and received $48,560 last year in total from Clark County, according to OpenPayrolls. A county employee was not authorized to disclose salary information to WW, but confirmed that figure was “approximate.”

It is also not clear what work exactly Hunzeker was doing for the Portland Police Bureau. The bureau did not respond when WW asked on Thursday whether he had returned to duty.

Mayor Ted Wheeler did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This post will be updated when he does.